Our Latest Stories:

For some years now, you’ve been able to see yard signs plastered around the suburban neighborhoods of certain parts of America declaring commitment to the Ten Commandments. Support for the Ten Commandments on these signs is not simply made as an aspect of religious belief, but as a commitment to seeing them enshrined as a foundation for American political life. “Elect Jesus!” cries one. Another features the tablets of Moses next to a bald eagle and an American flag. The message is clear: here’s your civic foundation, neighbors. It’s American to follow this.

Whenever I’ve seen these signs, they’ve irked me. Certainly people have the right to display these signs in front of their homes, sometimes one after the other. Certainly people have the right to decide that the Ten Commandments will be the guiding moral force in their lives. Certainly people have the right to proselytize, not to demand but to ask that others live according to the Ten Commandments. But these lawn signs do more than that. They make the claim that the Ten Commandments aren’t simply religious in nature, but also are or should be the foundation for American political life. That is a claim in contravention of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the government establishment of religion.

If the Ten Commandments don’t belong in our government, another set of ten principles certainly do. The Bill of Rights are the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States, and while they don’t cover the spirit of the Constitution from Alpha to Omega, they contain a concentrated articulation of civil liberty and government restraint which have made the United States a distinctively free society for its citizens. They also are the target of so many unfortunate Bush administration actions, and they need some defending lately.

I’ve often wished that I could plant a lawn sign with the bill of rights on it in front of my home, kind of as an answer to the Ten Commandments yard signs but also as an independent articulation of my own civic commitments. But when I went ahead and tried searching for “bill of rights lawn sign” or “bill of rights yard sign” on my favorite search engine a few years ago, I couldn’t find anything. I still can’t find anything. The difference today is that CafePress has begun making yard signs available for sale. I’ve confirmed with the company that they are made in the USA, too, clearing away worries that they might be printed over the smushed fingers of some kid in India who was sold by his or her family under false pretenses, sleeps on the roof of a factory, and eats rice covered with flies.

And so here they are. I’ve designed an overall “I Support the Bill of Rights” Yard Sign with the text of all ten amendments:

And here are some yard signs with the text of particular amendments to the Constitution:

Help change the premise of civic conversation in your community. For your fellow citizens who might have never even read the constitution, it may be a bit of an education.

I’ve ordered the overall Bill of Rights lawn sign to put by my front stoop, and I’ll share photos of it once it arrives so you can see what it looks like in situ.